EBRD to invest in modernization of Moldova’s Railways

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) intends to invest €100 million in a project to modernize Moldova’s Railways. But the project will be launched when the company adjusts its tariff policy, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communiqué from the Ministry of Economy. “We will attract the technical assistance needed to save money and increase the company’s competitiveness,” EBRD Regional Director for Caucasus, Moldova and Belarus Paul-Henri Forestier said in a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar. Valeriu Lazar said that this investment project should be correlated with the process of restructuring the company and the promotion of a nondiscriminatory and transparent tariff policy. He also said that new investment opportunities will appear when the legislative amendments proposed by the Ministry of Economy are adopted. They concern the restructuring of a number of state-run companies, their possible privatization or creation of a public-private partnership based on them. The companies operate in such areas as pharmaceutics, cosmetics, tobacco production, trade, wine making as well as power distribution and supply. Last year, the EBRD invested about €67 million in Moldova.